NelsonFibre the Baker's DIRTY DOZEN

                  THE HYDRO MANAGER ONCE CALLED NELSON FIBER HIS UTILITY

Then the BCUC began to ask questions about Nelson hydro's involvement.

A new city job appeared,  Director of Technology,  insiders told me to distance the hydro manager from Nelson Fiber, the  BCUC  were asking questions.

 The city HR manager got the job,  her new title,  HR Manager, Corporate Safety Officer and Director of Technology.  Each coming with a salary increase.  NO background or training, or experience in safety or technology I am aware of.

I never saw the job posted on the Nelson Tech & Knowledge workers face book page, they present any sniff of a tech job within a hundred miles to their members.  

I emailed the city questioning the city HR manager getting the job, they replied nobody in the public applied

I posted that to the Nelson Tech & Knowledge worker face book page,  comments like "something stinks" were made. 

Followed by a post from a "Ginger" speaking in first person, there is an executive city secretary with that name.

Her post stated the job was only posted internally???!  What is the truth?

 Everything was removed  and I was blocked from the face book page.

  There were complaints.

 I was reinstated and told I was on thin ice, not everyone agreed I should be allowed back.   

Recently I made a comment critical of the city,  immediatley blocked, turns out city councilor Keith Page is a site administrator, he must have been at the computer at that moment and blocked me.

There was another poster blocked critical of the city, by who?  the councilor? 

  No free speech on that face book page, councilor Page is the cities censor. 

Did you know the city is in the internet business?  They have what is called dark fibre, like waterpipe with no water, where does the water come from, the Real Internet Providers who already
own all the customers and with Telus now spending $20M to bring fibre to the home in all of Nelson, whereas Nelson Fibre is literally only available on Baker St. and corridors out to the schools, how do they expect to attract any customers.

  With 4000 city households Shaw and Telus own all the internet business since 2005 Nelson Fiber has attracted 28 real customers, all the rest are government.

With about 10km of fiber cable, estimates $20 to $90K per km.  see map below  

For example Rosemont , two customers,  Selkirk College and the Elementary school.  City income maybe $200/mo.  Payback on possible 5 km of cable $100-400K?  Never.  And will the schools now leave to the provincial Telus Ministry of education system fiber FirstGen used everywher else?  

The city spin, Nelson Fibre is a utility, they don't have to make money. (yet they claim to save $100k and earn $100K annually?) The manager $97K/yr and two fulltime IT people.  With maybe 28 real customers what are these people doing?  NF might have 60 total connections, most schools and other government offices who have their own IT people.

What will city council do now that NelsonFibre wants their rates reduced to "be competitive"?
(taxpayer subsidized competition for the real providers!)

                      THE DIRTY DOZEN REPORT 


Some excerpts from this report

the reality that government broadband networks are almost always a financial catastrophe for the government and its taxpayers. In an effort to “keep up with the Joneses” state and local officials frequently pour money into government internet projects without considering that nearly every government that has gone into the internet business found itself worse of f

Construction costs for broadband networks frequently go over budget, customer subscription numbers rarely meet projections,

the expenditures did nothing to improve the lives of the people served by government-owned networks.

government broadband networks represent some of the most unsuccessful, wasteful and flawed

local internet projects,

By any objective measure, the growth of municipal broadband networks has been one of the most disastrous movements to hit local and state governments in decades. Government internet projects unnecessarily put tax dollars at risk, needlessly reduce the resources available for valuable government services and unfairly compete against private businesses in the marketplace.

COULD THE CITY BE DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL?

My reading of the Community Charter is reserve funds borrowed for other purposes

must be repaid with interest. 

NelsonFibre has used Water Licence Reserve funds, the question is what are these funds

reserved for and how does NF expect to repay this with interest when they have no

expectation of a profit?

NelsonFibre has been built with grant money, Nelson Hydro workers have worked on it, yet when the BCUC in its annual rate revue asks NH if they are involved with NF, the response, a clever non answer  "that is from another budget".....would that be the water reserve fund?

Try to get a breakout of the financial picture for NelsonFibre, it doesn't exist.

Yet they say it saves the city $100,000/year and is self sustaining.

How is this possible, the only real income is from maybe 28 subscribers who pay

$150/mo to the city and then have to go out and get an Internet service plan when they can

get this directly for less from the major ISP providers.

Now that Telus fibre to the home is being installed in Nelson, what are they thinking.

They have no residential customers although they have had years to attract one.

Very few residents would have access anyways because their line doesn't exist where

most of the residents live.

The only financials available show Nelson Fibre lost money, that is for 2016.

When will this city begin to make decisions to benefit taxpayers instead of some

ego misguided and misinformed project of no value.

Nelson is going down the same rabbit hole with taxpayers money as did all these

other cities.

City Run Broadband a Disaster 

There was nothing in the 2020 public budget regarding Nelson Fibre.  The report did say

any questions?  contact budget@nelson.ca

I did, asking for the financials for Nelson Fiber..........weeks went by no reply I reminded

the CFO, he replied " I will have to throw some numbers together for you"..........time went on

nothing.  Recently (mid aug. 2020 I repeated my request)  still nothing.

MY CALCULATIONS FROM KNOWN INFORMATION AS FOLLOWS:

Above is a consultants report showing 26 real customers, every other connection is a taxpayer

funded location.

The city is DARK FIBRE, like water pipe with no water, presently the city receives $50/mo

from commercial business, non profits, and $100/strand from schools and others.

Doing the math one arrives at $4800/mo income.    There is about 10km of city fibre cable, who paid for this?  you will never know.  Nelson hydro did have linemen do some work, one was sent for fibreoptic training but hydro likes to deny being involved.

The BCUC asked about NH involvement, the manager stated "that was another budget".  This was never pursued.   Thank you once again to half of Nelson hydro customers who don't live in the city but their hydro bill helps pay for city items.  

Someone who knows more than I suggested the city is in for about $2M.

Research suggests 1 km of fibre cable can cost from $20 to $90K.

The manager $97K with two full time IT persons,  total about $220K/yr plus

offices benefits etc. easily $300k/yr

DHC communications is billing about $100K/yr, I don't know how much is fibre work

but they have the exclusive on this I believe.

Business case borrowed $2M over 20 years   $12,000/mo payments

 employees as above   $300K/yr  $25K/mo

DHC  ~ $8K/mo.

monthly totals from above $45k/mo.  or 10 times the income $4500/mo.  

NelsonFibre stranded ASSET?

The City of Nelson should have never gotten into the internet business, why?

Could this be the end of Nelson Fibre or will we taxpayers keep feeding it?


If you read my earlier blog posts regarding NelsonFibre, and look at the maps, the only customers outside of Baker St. (if any businesses are left) are the schools.

About 10km of fibreoptice cable.  What was the city thinking, competing with Telus or Shaw.

Now the Ministry of Education is funding and upgrading to what they call NEXT GEn

essentially higher speed internet for all schools across the province.

Where does this leave the city of Nelson who owns NelsonFibre, will they continue to receive their
measley $100/mo per school?

Probably won't matter if they lose that income its peanuts anyways compared to the possible $1-$2M wasted on stringing fibreoptic cable and everything that goes with it.

Here is an excerpt from the BC MIN of ED regarding rolling out their NEXT GEN

This all began in 2014

Launched in March 2014, the multi-year investment in BC classrooms will be fully operational by March 31, 2017, with over 75 per cent of sites completed by March 31, 2016.

The Next Generation Network provides modern infrastructure that will service all public schools in the province once completed. Not only does the network keep pace with the evolving use of Internet by students and educators, it also provides firewall management, web/URL filtering and IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection Systems and Intrusion Prevention Systems).

Beyond download speeds, schools are embracing mobile technologies and integrating digital instruction products for all classes, not just computer labs, including SMART Boards, Edmodo, and Learn 360.

The Next Generation Network is a partnership with school districts, the Ministry, TELUS and IBM, the primary service providers. Launched in March 2014, the multi-year investment in B.C. classrooms will be fully operational by March 31, 2017, with over 75% of sites completed by March 31, 2016. Over three years, start-up costs for the upgrade total $137.2 million.

The Next Generation Network replaces the existing Provincial Learning Network.

Quotes:

Mike Bernier, Minister of Education –

“B.C.’s world-class education system is on track to getting world-class Internet that will support innovative learning parents expect in every classroom. I am inspired by the teachers and students already making use of the Next Generation Network and look forward to further digitally-focused schools in the future.”

So will the city of Nelson NelsonFibre be downt o NO customers if the Provincial Network doesn't use the city fibreoptic, ?

Castlegar One - Nelson Four

Of course its difficult to measure many things and one will get the response its not apples
and apples you are comparing.

But my attempt to discover how Nelson does in the world I asked Castlegar some questions regarding
broadband etc.

Telus fibreoptic trailer on Gordon Rd today June 6, 2017.  Every other town around us now has Telus PureFibre to the house, not Nelson.  Telus would have done Nelson apparently a few years ago but the city wanted to do their own fibre.  So the inside industry chatter is they just went and did all the towns around us while waiting for Nelsonfibre to fall on its face economically---it has.

I have before me via my FOI request, the invoice for a Nelsonfibre customer billed Dec 31/2016, by what I understand is the exclusive install contractor for all Nelsonfibre installation.  They did the $22,000 door instal also.

Fibre Installation   total with taxes   $2291.74

Then one would add the one time admin fee $250,  the monthly $100 to the city of Nelson
and the $350 to the ISProvider.

First month total looks like $2991.74  plus taxes + $450  Total first month
subsequent months would be $100 to the city $350 to ISP for $450 plus taxes/mo.

Shaw provides this for $139.95/mo.  free install, modem, Shaw go wifi hot spot and waives
the instal fee.  (I requested the quote and was given the above).

So how many Nelsonfibre customers will be left when Telus PureFibre comes next year for
$49.95/mo???

Will RDCK stay,  Selkirk College?   SD8?  Why would they if they can get the same thing for about one quarter the cost?

This puts Nelson in the top Ten in North America for Intelligent Communities?

UPdate, June 2017  I see the manager of IT Salary jumped from around $86,000 to $97,000 this year, not bad with three other full timers,  Castlegar has ONE IT employee.

Nelson City Tourist Park and Banjos

                                                         Another Kind of Banjo

Walking by the City Tourist Park my smartphone had a whopping strong WiFi signal
from Shaw GoWiFi.  Being a Shaw internet customer these are becoming prolific and
making mobile wifi available in more spots everyday.

I suspected this came from the Nelson city tourist park.

Wouldn't you know it, this is the city tourist park office.  Later the attendant came along and we spoke, he told me he was a city of Nelson employee and the tourist park operated under the city Youth centre umbrella.

Notice the sign on the door stating they provide Shaw Go WiFi.  And in the office is a Shaw Hitron broadband modem supplying this to all campers with a strong signal.  My speed test on my smartphone at that time showed over 55Mbps download and 16Mbps upload.    That should allow about thousands of simultaneous text messages or 8,000 skype voice calls.  Maybe half the campers could be streaming live Netflix movies, while the rest surfed the internet at speeds unattainable a few years, maybe months ago.

My thought was  "Why doesn't the city campground use its own Nelson Fibre internet?"

Easy to answer.  Cost.....unaffordable.....

Directly above the tourist park is the hospital and Nelson fibre passes right by.  But their is no breakout.  The banjos are there, but no customers were dumb enough to by in, certainly not the hospital, I am sure they must make business decisions.

  Pictured above the Nelsonfibre optic cable behind the hospital, above the city tourist park.  There is no break out box because there are no customers.  The banjos are just a loop of cable that allows slack so the cable can be brought down inside of the mobile clean room to make a fibreoptic connection inside a breakout box.  Connecting glass fibre together so there is no light transmission losses requires special clean precision work by trained technicians.  When the connection is made the cable is put back up and the slack goes around those banjos, you can't allow it to hang loose.

What you are looking at is the Nelsonfibre optic cable behind the hospital loading dock area.  And I am guessing you can figure out why this fibreoptic cable view is often termed the banjo.

So what is that all about?   This particular location has no breakout, otherwise there would be a large black cylinder, its anticipating a customer(maybe the hospital) but obviously they aren't on board with Nelson fibres offering.   A breakout is an expensive device, in the 10 km of Nelson fibre most of the system has no breakout, because they have no customers, but they have lots of these banjos.

FIBRE OPTIC SPLICING IS A DELICATE OPERATION

Optical fibre cable connections/splicing is a very precise operation requiring a clean room.

That is a mobile trailer where the cable can be dropped down into this trailer(thus the banjo's allowing all the slack to let this drop into this clean room trailer to make connections.

A cleanroom is a controlled environment that has a low level of pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles, and chemical vapors. To be exact, a cleanroom has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at a specified particle size

Connecting fibre optic cables is a precision and expensive proposition. 












This all adds up to why the Nelson city tourist park is using Shaw for their internet service provider instead of the cities own internet service.

To the left is a Nelson fibre pole line breakout box,(equivalent of a splitter for cable tv for example) you will see these right alongside of Shaw and Telus fibreoptic breakouts. 

My educated guess is to bring in a clean room, purchase the breakout box, run a new fibre optic single strand down to the city tourist park to another fibre optic breakout to baseband could cost upwards of possibly $10,000.  Then the city would have to purchase internet service from some ISP(internet service provider) not Shaw or Telus thats $350/mo.  I suspect the city wouldn't have to pay themselves their one time $250 admin fee or the $150/mo for dark fibre(its like water pipe with no water) you need to get internet service "light it up" (put water in the pipe) from an ISP.
I'm not sure if that $350/mo includes the modem, but then you would have to buy your own WiFi equipment, hardly competive.  All of that and higher speeds from Shaw for $139.95/mo total cost free install.

From Shaw my last quote for a commercial install, including modem and Free Shaw GoWiFi hot spot, $139.95/mo instal fee waived and faster download at 150Mbps

Any questions why Nelson Fibre is a dead end?  A complete waste of money, Thanks to mayor Kozak and people who have no idea what they are doing, just like the community solar garden project another $500,000 down the toilet, I suspect this nelsonfibre could be double that cost!  Don't let the mayor leave town again.  She went to Europe came back with visions of solar panels.  Then New York City, and we get broadband internet!

When I was looking into city finances trying to find the costs for running nelsonfibre to the commons , which I didn't locate, my FOI request for what I thought was that for $35,000 was actually for a $22,000 door at city hall(I am sure it was about nelsonfibre's secure server access).


THE CITY ALREADY HAD SECURITY CAMERAS BUT APPARENTLY NOT ENOUGH?

But $15,000 of that $35,000 was  for 8 security surveillance cameras at the city works yard. My question is does the city follow its procurement policy regarding getting quotes.  Possibly these costs are legit and the low bid.  My guess is they are not, I would have to submit another FOI request for that information. 

Does the city follow their procurement policy?  I would like to feel confident that they do.  Maybe someone at the city can explain these costs, show that RFQ's went out.

You can see the city procurement policy click here.

I have my own security cams, viewable anywhere in the world on the smartphone.  When I was in Australia I put a camera on inside and outside thermometers to ensure my furnace wouldn't quit, it once did, which always leave one insecure.

My system about $200, I did all the installation etc., I have 4 cameras, the image below is a screenshot from my smartphone, the center picture with the circle is updating and thus a little fuzzy and showing that circle update.  

I am using the free version App to monitor my system on the internet, thus the ad at the top.(Words with Friends)  My system is set up to record on motion, thus saving memory.  Although my 80GB hard drive can likely store months all retrievable remotely or locally by a simple date and time search.  It can alert me if the hard drive fails or video, by email etc.

Its a long stretch from my 4 camera system for a couple hundred bucks to the cities 8 cameras for $15,000.

Have you noticed your Nelson hydro bill has increased 40% since about 2009, or taxes up and up and up.  

To pay for the mayors feel good solar garden and nelsonfibre.  Coming next, the big wood stove, aka biomass boiler down near the airport burning wood to heat water and run hot water pipes along the airport and into town, to where ??? who knows.  Once the hospital, no longer, the rec center and pool, nope, too expensive to retrofit, city hall, they just put in high efficiency gas boilers.....but they have a GRANT!! so we can chase that with increasing  tax and hydro bill dollars forever.  Maybe wind turbines next.

So just exactly what is the mayor saying in New York about Nelson that we are in the running for an award now in the top ten "intelligent?" communities in North America.  What if we win and they come here and find out what is going on....what then Mayor Kozak?

What if the residents here can't afford Nelson hydro power increases of over 40% in the last few years, or city taxes up 6.8% and I expect this will get worse....can we sell the over 10km of fibre optic cable that does nothing, or the $500,000 real cost of the solar garden doing nothing....your legacy is too expensive Mayor Kozak.

So just exactly how did this city get in the internet business?  Playing in the sandbox with Telux and Shaw.....who is responsible for this?

Nelson Broadband (fibre optic high speed internet)

                          Nelson Broadband, fibre optic cable high speed internet service

UPDATE jUNE 2019   Telus fiber to the home is here, now NelsonFibre is asking to reduce rates to try to compete?  Will this city council keep this waste going?  Its failed everywhere else will Nelson become the Bakers Dirty Dozen?

While pursuing the cities  solar garden project I became aware of   Nelson Broadband or nelsonfibre.ca

There is no nelsonfibre optic infrastructure currently available in residential areas outside the existing downtown and schools/college areas    
                                                           There never will be     keep paying that hydro bill.....                                                                               
UPdate:  March 2019   The city is planning a 288 fiber strand underwater cable from Lakeside to the North shore.   That is enough capacity to provide live streaming HD video movies to every home in Nelson simultaneously.  Rumor is its to increase Nelson hydro's grid reliability.???  Cost I see $30,.000 mentioned, I think thats just the beginning or the real costs.

The other rumour, the sewage lift station on the north shore.  How has it survived the last 20 years without fiber?  Its simplest form, is the power on or off?  Put a light on the bridge visible at the city of Nelson Hydro works yard.  Lite on,  power on.  Lite off - power off or light bulb burnt out.  Cost negligible.

You can read my letter to the editor,

Below is a picture of Nelson fibre, Telus and Shaw fibreoptic cable on the same pole.  Nelsonfibre has about 10km of fibre, in the downtown core with spurs out to the schools.  Telus and Shaw go everywhere.  Searching the internet I find fibreoptic cable costs from $20,000 to over $100,000 per km.    If the city has fifty customers (most other government or schools),  that might be generous, almost all within the downtown core, the remaining 9 km's of their fibre optic might have a dozen customers.  Shaw and Telus on the other hand divide up the other thousands and their cable is everywhere.

The city has dark fibre.  What is that?  Its like water pipes with no water.  You pay the city $100 per month if you are residential(only ava. if you live near Baker St or the main lines shown on the maps below), non profit or a school, $150/mo for business.  Then you have to sign up for internet service to connect to the world.  Typical business cost $350/mo.  Total $500.


A typical Nelson business Nelsonfibre cost would be something like $2500 instal, onetime admin fee of $250 monthly payments to the city of $150/mo and then they have to choose an ISP to hook them up to the world internet for another $350/mo.  If they have servers in the city hall availability is on city business hours, security and environmental control out of their control etc.  I received a quote from Shaw for a business $139.95/mo no installation fee and a free ShawGoWifi hotspot and other perks and massive bandwidth.  So Nelson fibre startup over $2500 and then $500/mo for 100mbps and Shaw only $139.95 free instal and 1/3 faster downloads at 150mbps,   Hmmm,,,, business case faster speeds for $139.95 or city internet for $500/mo....what to do.

 The city connected their departments, fire, police, library, and say they are saving $100,000? Believable?  They have two (update FOUR) full time employees and maybe $1M in hardware? Someone more attuned to this technology than I suggested $2M?   They are also saying that Nelsonfibre is self sustainable.  What does that mean, income pays all expenses?  I don't see how that is possible. At $100/mo for each school, and how many downtown business customers at $150/mo? 10? 20? Do they know Shaw provides faster downloads for 75% less cost, free instal and other perks?

Nelsonfibre charges a business $500 or costs to instal, a one time admin fee $250 and $150/mo for their empty water pipe.  Then you have to buy your equipment and pay your chosen ISP $350/mo to light up (put water in the pipe) hook you up to the internet.

I contacted Shaw, they would waive the hookup fee, charge $139/mo for faster speeds and supply the equipment as well as a free Shaw GoWifi site, and other perks.  I have an invoice in front of me for a nelsonfibre customer, total instal costs over $2300!  Shaw/Telus-free.

The map above shows the nelsonfibre routes, Connected buildings in brown, other than government and school buildings few connections.  Income to the city for schools $100/mo per school.  Over 10 km of fibre optic cable in the city, possibly $20-$100,000/km.

And recently after the mayor went to some digital conference in New York City, she came back announcing Nelson is in the top ten running in North America for some kind of intelligent community award!  The schtick is cities who don't get intop the high speed internet will be left behind.  This kind of wasteful spending keeps up there will be no one left to afford Nelson.


The map below shows Rosemont with only two schools connected at $100/mo each to the city.

Again over 10km in city possibly $20-$100,000 per km.

Below is Fairview with no income worth mentioning, City of Nelson taxpayers pay, when Telus and Shaw provide cheaper service.

The city Tourist Park uses Shaw yet the fibre optic cable is up behind them at the hospital?

The city bylaw changed in July to allow residential customers,  but it has no chance to attract customers, one has to just view their pricing structure, its not competitive at all.

Recently 5 trucks with out of town workers were installing fibre optic cable underground to the new Nelson Commons building.  Since they are not competitive residentially, what customer are they serving?  Nelson Commons can get faster service from Shaw for 75% less cost, are there any customers?

UPdate mar. 20/2017  I am still waiting for my FOI request for a detailed invoice for over $35,000 that I think is for this job to run fibreoptic cable from Ward st. to the Commons, how many possible customers at the commons?  Maybe one, ? two?  I can't be sure these pictures below are for nelsonfibre but be assured it would have taken the same workforce.

There is also a $22,000 door in city hall, I am sure it involves the nelsonfibre project, bill signed by the Nelsonfibre IT manager, you can see the invoice at the bottom.

I have to wonder why SD8 hooked up to the city network, must be something behind that, since the schools are still connected as far as I know to the original Provincial network as are all other schools.
What is the connection between the city and SD8?  The school district also bought 10 solar panels in the city solar garden boondoggle.

If you read the city fine print so one could have a server located in the basement of city hall, it makes no sense.  Access is limited to city hours, environment and security is unknown.  Secure servers have security guards, multiple locations to replicate data, are earthquake proof, back up powered, and on and on.  Read the cities requirements below:

The Customer acknowledges that all right, title and interest in the Dark Fibre and
COLO remains with the City and the Customer’s sole right with respect thereto is
to the use of the Dark Fibre and COLO for the duration and upon the terms and
conditions set out in this Bylaw and the approved Application.
3.5 The Customer may use the Service within its normal business operations,
provided that such normal business operations do not include the sale,
exchange, lease or other transfer rights in the Service.
3.6 Except as approved by the City, the Customer may not sublease any rights in the
Service or make the Service available to third parties as Dark Fibre or COLO.
3.7 Where the Customer controls access to premises into which the Dark Fibre is to
be installed, the Customer will do or cause to be done, at its expense and to the
satisfaction of the City, all acts reasonably necessary for the City to obtain such
registrations, permits or approvals as required by the City to access the
Customer’s premises and building fixtures, to install, maintain, repair and relocate
the Dark Fibre and appurtenances as required
(and their first borne?) lol

Here is what the city website is saying, believable?


2. The dark fibre is sustained by revenue earned!



"A recent survey of current clients revealed 100% satisfaction"  

Who did they survey, they must have missed who I spoke with, one said they wouldn't do it again.

And its Shaw who connects their system to the world, so why bother with this middleman?
When Telus gets back to town with their PureFibre broadband, every other town around us has it, just not Nelson, there was some ego contest a while back regarding the city and Telus using the city fibre
Telus left and did everyone else, no they will be here in 2018.  You call Nelsonfibre dark fibre now, it will then become totally blacked out fibre, they will have no customers and who knows how much in wasted infrastructure, maybe $1M?

Nelson fibre is a dead end how did the city ever think it could play in the same sandbox with the big boys of technology?

some comments from the Nelson Tech & Knowledge facebook page

 I started using Nelson Fibre when it first came out. I just recently swapped over Shaw for less money 6x the speeds and unlimited data. I am very happy with the change.



So far fingers crossed Shaw is working. I regularly do speed tests and I am 170+ up and 16+ down


shaw has become very reliable  I consistently get 150 - 170Mbps down and 16Mbps down at my home and 60Mbps down and 6mbps up at the office (which is on a slower plan).

At this point the only reason for FIber is if you have a need for fast upload.


 I suspect we are not getting much of any return on the Nelson Fibre. It would be interesting to see the numbers.

 as a product the city is flogging to end users I see a problem. It is now an inferior product as compared to what is available with Shaw and Telus. I am seeing users unadopt it. So touting it as a wonderful thing in every other newspaper article and what makes us a 21st Century Internet City has a bit of a credibility issue.

 
And the mayor and council talk about unaffordable housing.....

I understand DHC has an exclusive contract to do all Nelsonfibre work.  Does this mean no RFQ's?  I think this should go out for quotes, its taxpayers money being spent here.
The total is over $22,000 there was a previous payment resulting in the balance showing as over $17,000.

I can't be sure if this door is for  Nelson Fibre, my educated guess is its their attempt at creating a secure server site. Since their equipment is in the basement of city hall.

I doubt Nelsonfibre can provide the controlled environment, earthquake proof building, security, backup instant power, hot standby secondary storage instantanteously available in case of a primary failure.  All of that is available from the big boys at google or microsoft for example.  Nelson fibre wants you to pay them for your server space at one rack space for $800/mo.  A rack, 19" wide and usually six feet tall.
Can Nelson fibre provide 24/7/365 local tech support

Can it provide Tier 1, 2, 3 or 4 security backup?

I suspect the client would have to put their UPS battery backup charger and hot standby switchover electronics etc which would all be provided  by the big boys, for example in Calgary, Seattle, Google headquarters, wherever, never seen and guaranteed.  I suspect Nelson is out to lunch and uncompetitive here also.

  Who does this city think it is?  And apparently after the mayors trip to New York City Nelson is now in the top ten running for intelligent communities.   Do those people know what really exists here?

UPDATE June 1, 2017

Castlegar did a survey with their business people about putting in broadband, I can only presume the survey results didn't warrant installing broadband.  Now every resident in the city will have broadband Telus fibre optic to their home for $49.95/mo.

I can't be sure I am comparing apples to apples, but Castlegar has ONE full time IT (information technology) person.  Nelson has FOUR, the manager is getting over $86,000/yr.  UPDATE IN 2016 THAT WENT UP TO OVER $97,000 Yet they don't connect any customers to the internet, its done by your ISP vendor of choice (not Telus or Shaw) but third party vendors who buy from these suppliers and resell.  And Nelson fibre uses Shaw equipment to leave town and enter the internet world.

Did Nelson do a survey to see if Broadband was in demand?  NO, did they think the bakery needed 1GB speeds (500 pages of documents per second transfer rate for example) between the shoe store on Baker?  Because this is the only place its available other than the 10km heading out to the schools who each pay the city $100/mo.  My research suggests one km of fibre optic cable can cost from $20,000 to $90,000, we have over 10km.  The mayor says this saves the city $100,000/yr to hook up  city hall, the works yard and fire hall.   I could put a professional wifi antenna on city hall and see line of sight an antenna on the works yard and city hall and do this for peanuts.  Would the mayor show me how all this saves us $100,000 per year.

I have heard estimates this cost over $2M,  Castlegar has one full time IT person,  Nelson has FOUR.  And they do none of the connecting its done by their exclusive contractor as I understand  DHC Communications of Nelson.

UPDATE NOV 2017

Taking Nelson by storm, no one is participating.

The Intelligent Communities Forum will be naming its Smart21 Communities of 2017 next Wednesday, October 19 during an announcement taking place at the end of Think Canada’s Economic Development Forum in Niagara Falls. Nelson has submitted an application.

b) Broadband-Technology Adoption Mosaic Consulting has been engaged to provide “Broadband for Business in Nelson” a program to help businesses in the Nelson area improve their business performance using technology enabled by broadband communications. Attendance at the workshops was lower than hoped for and produced few candidates for subsequent coaching engagements. Of the three potential candidates that were identified, none have responded to follow up calls and emails. To date only one client has signed up to participate. We have identified a short-list of potential businesses for Mosaic to contact as well as looking at a new name for the pilot. The time-frame for the pilot has been extended to the end of March 2017. Action: Andi to update content and Tom to send out to Chamber members c) City of Nelson Update Tabled. d) Intelligent Community o Application Update Nelson has achieved status at one of the Smart21 communities in the world, and will now proceed to the next level, which is Top 7

How did the local schools become involved in Nelson Fibre?

Do all Nelson city IT employees have qualifying education  backgrounds?